


this is his kingdom, his symphony

by andthentheybow



Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [10]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minecraft IRL, Non-Linear Narrative, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Wilbur Soot-centric, but more angst, no beta we die like ghostbur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28701795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: do they know? do they know that this is the last thing he wanted? they don’t, of course they don’t, they have a role for him to play and he must play it. why can’t they see that he didn’t want to be the villain? that it is just what they have made him?he lost his mind when he lost his country. he doesn’t think he’ll be able to get either of them back.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot, Eret & Wilbur Soot, Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, Jschlatt & Wilbur Soot, Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001208
Comments: 30
Kudos: 91





	this is his kingdom, his symphony

**Author's Note:**

> don't be creepy about content creators, this is my interpretation of their personas, if they're uncomfortable it'll be taken down, etc etc
> 
> small note: this series is a bit of a canon divergence- just in the terms that i started this series before the "three lives" thing was canon and i'm too stubborn to change anything. that means there's no ghostbur, so i just generally avoid topics after the events of nov. 16th

this is his kingdom.

his trench coat is his cloak and his beanie is his crown and the white house is his castle. he is the king, he is the king, he is the king.

he is a fake king, and he knows it. pogtopia is not a kingdom, it is a ravine, where the branches move even when there is no wind, the walls shift and cave in and expand and there is nothing he can do about it. he is the fake king in the fake kingdom, no cloak, no crown, no one to rule over.

other than his brothers. his brothers are here. his people are here, more and more of them as time goes on. the more people take his side, the less of him there is than there was to begin with.

he thinks he may be going mad.

mad king, mad tyrant, him and schlatt. all rulers are the same, in the end.

he’s no ruler. he’s just a boy with a guitar, and he wants to go home.

\/|\/

do they know? do they know that this is the last thing he wanted? they don’t, of course they don’t, they have a role for him to play and he must play it. why can’t they see that he didn’t want to be the villain? that it is just what they have made him?

he lost his mind when he lost his country. he doesn’t think he’ll be able to get either of them back. not when he has a role to play.

and his role is so far up in the air that he has no idea what it even is. villain, president, poet, composer, singer, siren. the mad leader of the violent coup, the soft king of a kingdom that just wanted its freedom.

too many different roles. he’ll settle for the songwriter.

_ l’manberg, my unfinished symphony _ -

\/|\/

he holds the elections because he thinks he’ll win. they started this nation to get away from a monarchy, from dream’s tyrannical rule. he’s not about to replace dream with himself, trade one tyrant for another.

he’s not a tyrant. but a democratic election will make everyone feel better.

of course, it all goes to hell. his country is taken from him and in the blink of an eye his citizenship is revoked, he is exiled. and the worst part isn’t that his kingdom, his symphony, is being taken by some imposter-

no, the worst part is that tommy is exiled with him.

the worst part is that tommy is exiled with him, and tubbo and fundy and niki are not. it hurts more than anything to see fundy willingly standing at schlatt’s side, tubbo less-so-willingly, niki in the crowd screaming profanities. somewhere, dream is watching.

punz kills him. it hurts, but not as much as seeing tommy’s face when he respawns. schlatt orders them chased out of the country they built with their bare hands from the ground up. something inside him breaks.

as they run, tommy is at his side.

\/|\/

tommy. his little brother, his best friend. when they leave, phil makes them promise to stick together. somehow, tommy manages to get them into dream’s world.

he knows they are well known. it doesn’t hurt having your father and brother be the king of an empire. he didn’t think they were well known enough for someone like dream to become friends with tommy.

friends is a loose term. they fight more than they get along, at least, until pogtopia. there’s the disc war and the railroad skirmish and everything before and after and in-between.  _ after tommy _ becomes an era of time in dream’s world, simply because the land goes from peace to chaos the second he arrives.

but tommy- tommy stands by his side through everything. the drugs, the revolution, the war, the madness. he does tommy so dirty, and he knows it. he’s manipulative, and he knows it. he can’t justify it to himself, but he doesn’t stop, either.

and sometimes tommy looks at him and all he sees in his baby brother’s eyes is fear, and other times it’s anger, and other times it’s resignation. the resignation days are the worst, because tommy is just a kid who doesn’t deserve this.

he is watching from the top of the ravine and tubbo is returning from manberg and tommy is sprinting down the rocks to meet him. he sees the two boys that are his younger brothers embrace, and he knows tommy is near tears and will never admit it just like he is every time tubbo comes back. and he knows tubbo looks as tired as they all feel, and they are all three of them carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.

the world, or at least a country.

\/|\/

he is watching from the rooftops and his son is standing at schlatt’s side, laughing. his son is standing on the side of his sworn enemy, and he sees fundy glance toward the rooftops.

he makes eye contact with his son. fundy looks away.

he is watching from the table in the middle of a revolution as fundy desperately tries to connect with him, tries to offer war strategies and offers to fight and offers so much that he cannot let the boy give.

he tries to make eye contact after he rejects fundy’s ideas. fundy always looks away.

it shouldn’t be a surprise to him when fundy decides to run for president. it is a surprise to him when he announces niki as his vice. he talks to niki about it.

“he’s angry, wil,” she tells him, never one to beat around the bush with him. “he’s trying to prove himself. he’s trying to prove that he’s your son. he wants to make you proud.”

he doesn’t know how to tell his son that he’s always been proud. fundy doesn’t need to do anything to prove it. he tries to say it, but the words always get caught in his throat. for the one who tells stories, he thinks he’s doing a pretty bad job of telling his own.

\/|\/

he is standing in a ravine and he can hear someone calling his name. everything is still and tommy and techno are sparring on the surface and he is alone and the ravine is screaming  _ become something greater _ .

he does not know where techno is. tommy is standing in front of him.

“i say, if we can’t have l’manberg, no one can!” he cries. tommy looks horrified.

pogtopia is his kingdom. these lanterns are his subjects and these stone walls are his castle halls and tommy hovering in front of him, tears in his eyes-

-is not the enemy. tommy is not the enemy. schlatt is the enemy. schlatt and all his allies, they are the enemies, they have taken his symphony from him, they are going to try and compose it but they cannot because it is  _ his _ , this is his symphony and his symphony alone-

-tommy is the enemy, because he’s going to stop him, he’s talking to tubbo, consorting with the opponent-

_ let’s be the bad guys _ echoes throughout the ravine until long after it is empty.

\/|\/

it’s not like he asked to go mad. it’s not like he wanted to become the villain.

the worst part isn’t even that he’s trapped in his head while it’s happening, watching someone else take over his body. the worst part is that it’s him, the whole time, really and truly and fully him. he is not watching himself go insane. he is really and truly and fully himself going mad.

and in the rare moments of lucidity, where he stops and looks back and thinks  _ what have i done _ , he is able to hold those he loves close and scream at himself and scream at the universe and ask  _ why. _

he didn’t want to become the villain. but everyone else-

everyone else wanted him to be the false god. the fake king. a beanie for a crown and a ravine for a kingdom, throne of madness, play the role of the bad guy because what this world needs is one more bad guy, isn’t it?

he is the storyteller, the composer, and because of it he is dangerous. he can weaponize his words and turn his songs to daggers, and he could become a god because of it. and dream, the only god this world has, can’t have that happening. 

if there is no storyteller, there is no story. if he is not there to compose his symphony, it will fall apart, every instrument in chaos, every note a chord of dissonance.

which is what dream wants. dream wants to take it away. but this is his kingdom, his symphony. he is the king of nothing. the king of a dingy, underground ravine. the king of a tunnel leading to what was once his glorious kingdom. dream will destroy that kingdom again and again to make sure his kinghood is fake, even if dream acts like he doesn’t really care. and maybe he doesn’t. maybe this is all just a game to him.

after all, what’s a king to a god?

\/|\/

and what’s a god to a nonbeliever? techno doesn’t care if dream is the god of the world; techno is there for the chaos and nothing more. techno is there because dream finally invited him in, and you don’t say no to a person like dream. techno is a god in his own right, the god of blood and death, the screams of those whose blood he’s spilt filling his ears.

he is there for chaos. for anarchy. for his brothers.

he has not yet started losing it when techno arrives, and all he can feel is pure joy. he trusts techno with his life, but he does not trust techno with his country. the second schlatt falls, techno will want l’manberg to go down with him. that’s just who he is. techno will not want him or tommy to take up the mantle of president, he would rather die than see his family run a government again.

( _ again, _ because of an empire that he and tommy have only heard stories about.  _ again, _ because techno and phil are covered with scars and treat each other like old war buddies rather than father and son.  _ again, _ because techno is a violent anarchist, and it shows in every move he makes. he wants the government to fall. it doesn’t matter if it’s tyrannical or not, if the president is a cruel emperor or just a kid.)

he trusts techno with his life, but he does not trust techno with his country. tommy trusts techno with everything he has, and so he lets techno in, doesn’t care if he’s conspiring, because at the end of the day everyone is conspiring, aren’t they? niki remains in l’manberg and fundy takes schlatt’s side and tommy meets up with tubbo and everyone is against him.

is it really paranoia if they’re actually out to get you?

he knows it’s illogical. that it’s a very  _ techno _ way of thinking. he lets it happen, he sees himself going on a downward spiral and he does nothing to stop himself. and technoblade is there every step of the way, encouraging him, encouraging the violence.

his two younger brothers are in the pit. they are both bruised and bloodied. niki is crying for them to stop. tubbo looks like he wants to crawl out of his skin.

(tubbo, who he has scarred. who he has let get hurt. niki, who he has scorned. who he has dragged into this war. tommy and techno, who he has failed. he has not been the older brother phil wanted him to be. he has not been the older brother they needed.)

instead of telling them to stop, he tells them to go. techno speaks violence and tommy speaks love; they are the only universal languages. but in a fistfight, violence always wins.

\/|\/

violence, and betrayal.

eret is like a sibling to him, their heads heavy as they carry a revolution. he trusts eret with everything he has, with all his being, and eret-

betrays them.

betrays them for power, of all things. a castle. a crown.

“down with the revolution, boys,” they say, and he feels a sword running through his gut just as the words that mark the beginning of the end echo throughout the cave.  _ “it was never meant to be.” _

it’s the beginning of the end in the sense that after that, tommy is no longer a child. he trades his discs for their freedom and he pretends not to be so, so exhausted as his older brother lifts him up. tommy is just a child, a child who has been failed by every adult around him.

including him. the war is over and tommy looks at him and says, “we did it, wil,” and he knows that if not for tommy nothing would have been done. he and dream started this war over something that was a joke, and it became a fight that would never leave the bones of this earth.

the war is over and dream looks at him across the battlefield, tommy’s discs in hand, and the mask isn’t lifted, but he knows the god is smiling.

after all of that, he doesn’t think he will trust eret ever again. or dream, or sapnap, or george, or punz. he only has tommy and tubbo and fundy.

and niki, who arrives shortly after, leaps into his arms and lets him spin her around. and jack, who decides to take l’manberg’s side, and quackity, who walks through their streets with his head held high.

but eret’s betrayal has snapped something in him. maybe that was the moment he started going mad.

\/|\/

he and schlatt are old friends, from a different world. they nearly killed each other many times, they did kill each other many more. they were brothers in arms, best friends, and he was hoping that would stay the same when schlatt entered dream’s world.

and then schlatt, being schlatt, got himself banned. tommy often crowed it was simply for being too funny. he knew the truth.

dream was threatened. dream is the one true god of this world, and seeing schlatt, seeing the power that he could hold if he simply let himself-

well, there’s a reason dream hasn’t invited technoblade here yet. dream is the world’s only god, and he needs to make sure that its occupants damn well know it. even if he tries to hide what he is, he has a way of pushing his message.  _ you pray to me, _ the message reads,  _ and i decide whether to answer or not. _

he doesn’t pray.

schlatt’s let back in anyways.

\/|\/

schlatt’s let back in anyways, and immediately decides to run against him in the election.

they were best friends, once. they aren’t any more. the second schlatt announces his candidacy, any bond they had is broken, at least from his side.

it gets even worse seeing tubbo up on that stage, because the way they stand, tubbo and schlatt are so similar and so different at the same time. schlatt calls tubbo his right hand man, and it’s a direct taunt to tommy, and they all know it. tubbo is making eye contact with him desperately, telling him to run.

so he runs.

he vows that schlatt will end up dead. he doesn’t care how it happens. he’s going to get his country back, because it’s  _ his _ , isn’t it? this whole damn nation is his, it started as his and it’ll go out as his, because this is his kingdom, his symphony, and if he can’t have it then no one can.

\/|\/

he could be a god, if he tried. the god of music or poetry or storytelling. just like schlatt and techno, he holds the powers of a deity in his hands. he is the creator, the musician, the storyteller, the magician. he is the writer, the composer; the world is his kingdom, his symphony.

dream would never let him be a god. dream would never let schlatt or techno be gods. he lets tommy play the role of hero, he lets schlatt play the role of villain, he lets eret play the role of king. but the second any of them get close to the role of god-

there is only one god here, and it is dream.

schlatt is allowed back into the world on the condition that he does not attempt to become its god. techno is allowed into the world on the condition that he knows he is not the god here. and he-

he doesn’t get any such lecture. he gets looks from a white mask across a battlefield, threats whispered in the dead of night, a god that does not answer any prayer he sends.  _ if you want to be a god so badly, _ he can imagine dream saying,  _ then answer your prayers yourself _ .

he does not want to be a god. he does not want to be a king. he wants to be a boy playing a guitar, an eldest child holding his brothers, a writer, a composer, a father, a son. he wants to be human.

but he is the one writing the story. dream may have given him the role of hero-turned-villain, but when this symphony is his, how could he be anything other than a false god?

\/|\/

he’s playing the guitar when phil finds him. or rather, when techno finds him. because this little pig hybrid runs up to him with his sword drawn and he clutches his guitar close to his chest and stares. and a winged man that must be an angel rushes up behind the kid. they both crouch and they talk to him and when the other kid- technoblade- smiles, he figures he can trust this man.

phil becomes his father. techno becomes his brother. later, they find tommy, and the three boys vow to stay together in spirit, even if they’re not physically in the same place.

when they split up, he can see phil trying not to cry. he tells them that he is so, so proud of them, and that if they fuck up anyone else’s world too bad, he’ll bring them straight home.

“and  _ don’t _ let your eyes off tommy,” phil warns him, and he promises not to.

he doesn’t do a very good job of it.

\/|\/

he wants to be playing the guitar when phil finds him. instead, he’s standing in front of a stone wall, staring at a button.

“you’re my  _ son _ ,” phil cries to him.

“it was never meant to be,” he says sadly.

this is his kingdom, his symphony. he’s the one that started it. he’s the one who gets to end it.

he hands his father his sword and begs him to kill him. phil refuses, and he begs again.

it takes two strikes for phil to bring him down. phil is sobbing before the first one ever hits.

later, phil tells him he’s taking them home. he is watching his people (does he have any right to call them his people anymore?). he agrees to go home. he thinks it’ll be good to clear his head.

he can tell that phil agrees with him, with everything he’s done, and that’s why they have to leave. l’manberg is his kingdom, his symphony. if he cannot have it, no one can.

who will write it in his absence?

\/|\/

niki. niki will write it. niki, his best friend, who he owes his life to time and time again. she led the rebellion while he was away, she kept the people fighting. she was the one who screamed their stories from the rooftops, and when schlatt shot her down, she whispered them in the streets.

niki will write his symphony. even if she is not the president, she will not stop writing l’manberg’s story. she will weave it the same way she wove the wool of their massive flag, burned down by his son, her screams echoing all the way to pogtopia.

niki, who he picked up and flung around when she first arrived, because he was so excited to see her. niki, his best friend, who sits next to him as he looks over new l’manberg. he came one last time, to say goodbye to his symphony before phil took him home. and when he sat down next to niki, she did not lean away.

she leans toward him, and rests her head on his shoulder. “i’m going to miss you,” she says. “we all are.”

“i blew it up, niki,” he whispers. he does not think she should ever forgive him. he knows that she already has.

“it was never meant to be,” she replies, and they both know she is wrong. it was always meant to be. it was always, always, always meant to be.

\/|\/

quackity and tommy are attempting to talk him out of blowing the country to pieces. somewhere, tubbo and niki are resting, waiting, attempting to recover from the horrors induced upon them by schlatt. quackity does not allow himself that. instead, he’s here with tommy, and they are all staring at a button and waiting and watching.

he could do it. right now, he could do it.

he almost does.

he doesn’t.

what scares him most is that he is fully and completely in control of himself when it happens, he isn’t going crazy, he isn’t thinking of himself as the villain. he isn’t thinking at all, really. it’s mostly just a lot of  _ my symphony has caused so much hurt, it is time i hurt it in return. _

he doesn’t do it.

later, tommy hugs him tight and he can see the fear in his eyes as he hugs back. “i really thought you were going to do it,” tommy tells him.

“i wouldn’t,” he replies honestly. “not while you could’ve gotten hurt.”

and for a moment the language he is speaking is not violence, but love. love for his brothers, his friends, his country. this is his kingdom, his symphony, and he loves it.

“you don’t have to do this  _ alone _ , wilbur,” tommy says, and for once he knows with complete surety that his brother is right.

\/|\/

he is holding his son in his arms and everything is alright. he is holding his son in his arms and he is crying and so is fundy, and it has been so, so long since he had a moment of lucidity, but fundy is in pogtopia now and niki is murmuring that he’s on their side and he doesn’t even care if fundy’s on their side or not, his son is  _ here _ and he is able to hold him in his arms.

“i’m so, so sorry,” he says. for all the things he has done in the past and all the things he will do in the future.

“i’m sorry, too,” fundy chokes out. “ _ dad _ -”

he cries harder. his son tightens his grip. his son, his son, his son-

even if it hasn’t seemed like it, he’s done it all for his son. just some kid he found when l’manberg was newly formed, a kid he found and adopted and here they are. at the bottom of a ravine where the wind whispers  _ stay _ and the branches are still and a father and son hold each other tight and don’t let go, they don’t let go, and the wind cries louder and they still don’t let go.

\/|\/

this is his kingdom. his trench coat is his cloak and his beanie is his crown and the white house, the ravine, l’manberg, they are his castle. he is the king, he is the king, he is the king.

this is his symphony. these streets are his melodies and these buildings are his harmonies and these people are the words that flow from the lips of the singer, the notes from the strings of the instruments.

and these people, the ones he loves- techno, tubbo, fundy, niki, phil, tommy, so many more- they have always been there. supporting him. playing the instruments he doesn’t know how to. adding in their own unique touches. they are with him, false god or fake king or not.

this is his kingdom, his symphony.

but he has never been writing it alone.

**Author's Note:**

> comment for my eternal platonic love
> 
> [ twitter ](https://www.twitter.com/andthentheybow)
> 
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